Yours enclosing a sketch of your lecture on the character of Mr Lincoln [1] is recd and I must say that I think you have delineated him with great truth & force You wish me to give you my views & recollections respecting him Ever since his death I have been endeavoring to recall to mind his prominent traits of character and I must confess that the task is no easy one Mr Lincoln had but few peculiarities & hardly an eccentricity His mind was made up of the traits which belong to mankind generally He was a remarkably temperate man; eschewing every indulgence not so much as it seemed to me, from principle as from a want of appetites I never heard him declaim against the use of tobacco or other stimulants although he never indulged in them He was genial but not very sociable He did not seek company but when he was in it he was the most entertaining person I ever knew He was once pressed into service to entertain Mr Van Buren at Rochester in your County & he succeeded to admiration [2] Mr